Project description: Alaska Airlines developed Jenn, a customer- and employee-facing assistance system for providing real-time access to online information through natural language, based on technology from Next IT.

Project description: American Airlines unified its IVR (interactive voice response) system into a single platform, integrating software from Tellme with its customer database, flight operations, and reservations systems.

Project description: The parent company to the University of Phoenix transitioned its legacy BPM system to EMC enterprise content management technology, migrating 30 million documents and integrating the new system with existing Oracle, PeopleSoft, and Kofax technology to support 300,000 students per year.

Project description: BlueStar developed its NextStar SOA initiative to streamline and automate core business processes, including customer enrollment, provisioning, care, and billing, from the ground up, relying in large part on open source technologies.

Project description: Borders re-engineered its e-commerce Web site to include Web 2.0 functionality, integrating solutions from IBM, Endeca, and Allurent and developing numerous new applications with hooks into existing internal and partner back-office systems.

Project description: Broward County implemented videoconferencing technology from Tandberg to construct a district-wide virtual learning environment for students that could also enable continued educational operations during emergencies.

Project description: Jacksonville developed an infrastructure for automatically locating city vehicles, tapping GPS-enabled boxes, the city's existing UHF radio network, and geocoding and reporting software.

Project description: Concur tapped WSO2 middleware for its SOA implementation, integrating JIRA, RightNow CRM, Salesforce, Oracle ERP, and several other in-house systems and delivering its services through a portal developed in-house and based on Ext JS 2.0, Spring Framework, PHP, and JavaScript.

Project description: Direct Energy developed an in-house load forecasting system, integrating data feeds from the billing platforms of a variety of business units, eliminating dozens of manual processes, and cutting report generation from once per quarter to once per week.

Project lead: John Bratkovics, Head of Networks, Voice, and Collaboration Technologies, Head of Infrastructure Americas

Project description: Dresdner Kleinwort completed an IT standardization initiative in the wake of three major mergers, tapping auditing technology from Tideway to identify and rectify duplicate assets and unknown dependencies.

Project description: Earth Rangers developed an online community to help inspire children to have a positive impact on the environment. It also modernized its IT operations around virtualization and storage technology from Pillar to reduce the organization's datacenter power consumption.

Project description: Eaton implemented VoGAN (voice over global area network) technologies as the foundation of a unified communication and collaboration strategy that leveraged the company's existing AT&T data network as the primary transport for voice communications.

Project lead: David Brattain, SVP of Systems, EITM and Product Support

Project description: Elavon IT transformed the financial services firm's approach to network management, adopting ITIL best practices and automating and integrating workflows based on multiple IT management technologies from CA.

Project description: EMGS integrated file serving software from iBrix and 1,300 new Dell PowerEdge blade servers with its original 500 PowerEdge cluster and EMC storage system to support a 300 percent increase in demand for processing electromagnetic data surveys, more complex 3-D modeling, and fast data throughput with no system downtime.

Project description: Fannie Mae reduced its server footprint by 31 percent and increased its asset utilization by 37 percent as the result of a virtualization and consolidation initiative based on EMC SAN and VMware ESX clusters.

Project description: GE developed an information management system to facilitate collaboration among engineers, suppliers, and customers, including customized engineering software, remote desktop and real-time work share functionality, and dedicated connectivity between six partner sites in three countries.

Project description: Geokinetics integrated the IT operations of five independently managed entities with offices in six continents to be Sarbanes-Oxley compliant as part of an expansive acquisitions process that included archiving technology from Iron Mountain.

Industry: Resources German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resourceswww.bgr.bund.de

Open Source Infrastructure

Project lead: Markus Dohmann, Geophysicist

Project description: The institute switched its entire infrastructure of its seismic activity monitoring operations to open source, adapting 100 programs to a new data-collecting and monitoring environment centered on Ingres.

Project description: Hire A Hero integrated software from Salesforce.com, Your Membership.com, and XAware to create a services-based Web 2.0 platform for helping returning veterans find work in the United States.

Project description: To efficiently manage multiple Web sites and applications written in a variety of programming languages, HomeAway developed AtomServer, tapping Abdera from Apache and incorporating ideas from the Atom community. The data distribution framework has since been open-sourced under the Apache Software License.

Project description: The Indiana Office of Technology standardized, consolidated, and refreshed its IT desktop environment, upgrading the majority of the state's 25,000 PCs and implementing a statewide network security system to enable remote shutdown of machines exhibiting infected behaviors.

Project description: The managed print and promotional solutions provider redeveloped its in-house production management app, tapping development tools such as Eclipse, Junit, Rake, Spring, Hibernate, and CruiseControl to serve the needs of 290 users at 21 locations.

Project description: Having acquired several companies in the past year, Inverness sought to consolidate the disparate HR approaches and practices of more than 20 different companies into a single HRM platform, cleansing data across each company and integrating Workday HRM with several payroll, benefits, and candidate management apps.

Project description: IPAC has designed and is building out its multinode Exanode cluster for processing and extracting images of up to 30 million objects captured each evening as part of its Palomar Transient Factory project for identifying undiscovered objects in the night sky.

Project description: Kansas Spine modernized its IT infrastructure, consolidating server operations in a virtualized VMware environment, while increasing the performance of its storage architecture using the thin provisioning, tiered storage, and storage virtualization functionality of Compellent SANs.

Project description: Konica Minolta Business Solutions integrated open source portal technology from Jetspeed with enterprise CMS and ERP applications to create a common employee/b-to-b platform that has aided in the development of customized apps for new business channels.

Project description: Lehman merged Clarus Systems integrated voice service management software and dozens of Cisco VoIP apps as part of a systemwide VoIP infrastructure overhaul. [Ed: Jisoo Lee and team have since been acquired by Barclays Capital.]

Project description: The Ohio Education Computer Network standardized the backup, archive, and disaster recovery of 14 of its 23 IT centers using VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3 and STORServer, protecting the data and continuity of IT operations of more than 400 Ohio school districts.

Project description: The Max Planck Institute built a 5,000-CPU Ethernet cluster, comprising 1,342 compute nodes, each with its own dedicated Ethernet connection to a Woven Ethernet switch. The Planck Institute's Atlas is the fastest Gigabit Ethernet cluster in the world, with a performance rating of 32.8 teraflops per second.

Project description: Miami-Dade Schools implemented BigFix power management technology to maximize the energy efficiency of 80,000 computers across 370 sites in its school system. Working together with the facilities group, Miami-Dade Schools IT also coordinated computer and HVAC electricity conservation programs to reduce the use of air conditioning during computer shutdown cycles.

Project description: Midland Memorial implemented the Medsphere-backed open source OpenVista e-health records platform, integrating more than 10 critical health applications on a fully open source technology stack, resulting in a near-paperless operation, as well as an 88 percent reduction in infection rates and a 59 percent reduction in medication errors.

Project description: Monsato developed extensive in-house software as part of its seed-chipping initiative to extract genetic information from plants prior to planting and thereby allow breeders to select seeds based on desired traits.

Project description: The New England School of Law upgraded its infrastructure to take advantage of virtualization technologies and transition its two datacenters from a DAS to a SAN environment, achieving high availability and a reduced carbon footprint.

Project description: New Jersey Transit tapped Force.com to customize its Salesforce-based customer service platform, building several custom applications, including field-investigation tools for undercover agents and a correspondence management system for customer complaints.

Project description: Oklahoma City IT built out an extensive Wi-Fi mesh network using technology from Tropos, Accela, Motorola, and NetMotion and integrated CAD, reporting, records management, GPS tracking, Web-based crime databases, mapping systems, video monitoring, and the vast majority of the city's IT apps into the network.

Project description: Pitney Bowes Canada overhauled its field service infrastructure, tapping communication technology from Antenna Software, while transitioning its legacy CRM system to Siebel and shifting its field workers from Windows Mobile to BlackBerry devices, to construct a real-time mobile field service platform with hooks into the company's existing field service mainframe.

Project description: Polycom's comprehensive transformation of its network infrastructure began with a bottom-up design of the company's global WAN and LAN environments, with an emphasis on reducing the latency, jitter, and packet loss of high-definition video, VoIP, and business app traffic, spanning 500 network devices and 5,000 end-user devices at more than 40 locations.

Project description: To help customers of its alternative fueling stations, Propel developed the CleanDrive carbon emission tracking platform, tapping several open source technologies. The system networks Propel's clean-fuel locations, links fuel purchases to customer records, and presents users with calculated emissions reductions based on their fuel blend preferences.

Project description: Thomson Reuters developed Thomson Innovation, an intellectual property research and analysis tool that required Thomson Reuters to develop a new information architecture, search functionality, and RIA interface, then integrate the resultant system with data, identity, e-commerce, and order fulfillment infrastructures.

Project description: St. Jude modernized and consolidated its storage operations into an open source storage architecture, partnering with Laurus Technologies to protect and manage the data and virtualization of 325 servers using technology from Sun Microsystems, IBM, Symantec, and Red Hat.

Project description: Tata Consultancy developed its Idea Storm portal-based platform to enable employees across the globe to collaborate on business challenges using a dynamically scalable infrastructure that included presence, collaboration, and knowledge management technologies.

Project description: Having faced a natural disaster well beyond its original worst-case scenario assumptions in the form of Hurricane Katrina, Tidewater initiated a more comprehensive disaster recovery and business continuity plan, tapping Fibre Channel, iSCSI, and Compellent SAN technology at the maritime support service's New Orleans headquarters and a second site in Dallas.

Project description: TLC transformed its traditional, paper-based payroll operations into an automated, paperless system that integrates eight applications and provides for full offsite disaster recovery. Eliminating manual processing enabled the SMB payroll service provider to increase its client roster without increasing the cost of its operations.

Project description: The Center for Army Lessons Learned re-architected its pull-based information sharing strategy to a full-fledged push-based L2I (lessons learned integration) network, replacing its previous e-mail- and forum-dependent knowledge management system with an architecture integrated across 72 organizations. The L2I program has disseminated more than 265,000 products, briefed more than 54,000 soldiers and leaders, and has transferred more than 24,000 lessons from military and civilian analysts to forces both in combat and stationed in the United States.

Project description: To provide consumers with more choices for personalized stamped envelopes, the U.S. Postal Service re-engineered its PSE initiative to connect with a state-of-the-art printing facility, tapping EDI for order intake and data transmission, as well as a customized Web-based order fulfillment app.

Project description: UKFast developed its in-house automated server deployment system using open source technologies, integrating the company's sales and technical databases to enable online server requests to be fulfilled automatically based on client requirements.

Project description: Virginia Tech built out an automated procurement system based on SciQuest's on-demand platform, integrating "HokieMart" with the university's financial systems, SunGard ERP system, and other internal supply-chain systems to manage more than $280 million in transactions per year.

Industry: Education Warrington College of Business Administration at the University of Floridawww.cba.ufl.edu

Project description: Wells Fargo developed a next-generation ATM platform tapping state-of-the-art development technologies and integrating resultant dynamic UI with the company's mainframe systems to deliver customized services based on transaction history and customer preferences.

Project description: Willis optimized its infrastructure to improve data sharing among global teams by increasing its network performance using Riverbed technology and consolidating applications at two primary datacenter in the United States and the United Kingdom.